Noah Ross Law serves clients on Vancouver Island and throughout British Columbia. Noah primarily works with individuals, movements and communities engaged in resisting extractive resource industries and seeking to create more sustainable and equitable communities. He works alone or with teams of lawyers depending on the needs of clients and the complexity of the work.

Within this work Noah has a special interest in defending against injunctions and defending individuals who have been arrested for breaching injunctions. 

Some of Noah Ross’s work is supported by grants from the West Coast Environmental Law’s Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund. For more information on criteria for grants from the EDRF, see here.

Notable Cases & Submissions

• Campbell & Fairweather Psychology Group v Prenger, 2018 BCSC 1916 (CanLII)

  • Successfully defended against an injunction application by a former employer seeking to enforce a non-compete clause which was found to be unclear and overbroad. Client was able to continue operating her psychology practice within the area covered by the non-compete clause.

• Nanaimo (City) v. Courtoreille, 2018 BCSC 1629 (CanLII)

  • Acted as lead counsel for a tent city known as DisconTent City in downtown Nanaimo which provided a home for up to 300 residents. The City of Nanaimo received an injunction against the tent city but we were successful in allowing the camp to stay in place for six months until upwards of 100 units of housing were provided for homeless people who had been staying in camp.

• Coastal GasLink v. Huson, 2019 BCSC 2264 (CanLII)

  • Acted as a junior member of a team opposing Coastal GasLink’s application for an injunction against members of the Wet’suwet’en house group Dark House. Helped build Affidavit evidence related to Wet’suwet’en Indigenous Law.

• Teal Cedar Products Ltd. v Rainforest Flying Squad, 2022 BCSC 701 (CanLII)

  • Received an acquittal for an individual charged with criminal contempt of court on the basis that members of the C-IRG of the RCMP did not properly provide him notice of the injunction. This case exposed an error in the notification method used by the C-IRG unit members in 2021 which impacts other accused who were not engaged in blockading when arrested.

• Teal Cedar Products Ltd. v Rainforest Flying Squad, 2022 BCSC 429 (CanLII) - Ongoing.

  • I co-lead lead counsel on an ongoing stay Application involving over a hundred individuals accused of committing contempt of court at Fairy Creek. The applicants are seeking to stay all charges on the basis of RCMP misconduct. The court found in this application to strike that the Application could proceed on a collective basis.

• Submission to the Civilian Complaints Review Commission of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on behalf of individuals arrested on May 17, 2022 in the Argenta-Johnson’s Landing Area - Ongoing.

  • Coordinated a collective policy complaint to the CRCC on behalf of 18 individuals arrested and charged with contempt of court. This Complaint was co-signed by the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association and a range of other organizations and alleged several instances of wrongful arrest and unlawful conduct by the C-IRG unit of the RCMP. The CRCC has not yet responded to this claim